The first step in setting up the b-hyve is to connect it to your phone, over bluetooth IIRC. We could never get that to work on many attempts with two different phones. The whole process was confusing and unreliable. A couple of times it looked like maybe we had connected to it, only to have it disappear in the next step. In stark contrast, the RainMachine connected to my network immediately w/0 issues. Given I don’t have time to debug someone else’s poorly designed and executed hardware/software, an hour was all time I had to devote to trying to get it working.
I would be a +1 for the Orbit b-hyve. I’ve had one installed for over a month now and it has been rock solid after a mostly problem free setup. To confirm, yes, it does require 2.4Ghz wifi. It does not have a 5Ghz radio in it, which is good since 2.4 has the range it needs (most people don’t put an access point in their garage or outside the house where their sprinkler controller is). The wifi connection has been rock solid and it responds quickly to the commands I issue from the b-hyve app. Most importantly, since setting it to fully automatic, my lawn is still green and is, in fact, better looking at this time of the summer than it ever was when I was using a manual programmable timer.
I wish it had worked for us. My RainMachine (and other devices I have) are also 2.4GHz and I never had problems connecting to them. The orbit is the outlier. Who knows … maybe I got a bad unit, or bad firmware on it, or something. Too bad - I would have loved to have checked it out.
More reviewage if anyone is interested. I have been really pleased w/the device while it’s been rainy here … it’s done a great job of not watering because the yard was getting plenty of water. Recently it’s gotten VERY dry and hot and the system was not working as well - not putting nearly enough water into the yard. I figured some of this was because I was watering every three days so I modified the schedule to water every two days. Still wasn’t scheduling enough watering time, and in fact yesterday it didn’t water at all despite the high temps and lack of rain. So I called their support and they were super helpful. Showed me how to set up weather underground so now I’m using some very local data instead of NOAH. And explained the details of how some of the prediction stuff works based on how you configure the zones. Apparently I don’t have mine configured very accurately so he offered to walk me through the setup when I have time - sweet!
Bottom line, I’m very happy w/rainmachine and would recommend them to everyone.
I also love my RainMachines. I have a big place so I have 2 RainMachine controllers.
I added male hose thread ends to my drip irrigation zones; they act like spigots that I can turn on and off with my phone. It is great to be able to fill a bucket or watering can anywhere on my property.
I hooked my first controller to SmartThings the day I set it up, but I use the RainMachine app to control it so I didn’t bother linking the second one with SmartThings. However, I recently added some Hunter MP3500 sprinkler heads at the top of some steep slopes. These are really sensitive to wind. I want to use SmartThings to stop those zones if it gets windy. Does anyone know how to connect two different RainMachine controllers to SmartThings?
Also, I want to mention that RainMachine doesn’t just cancel programs when it is raining. RainMachine asks about plant types so it can calculate plant transpiration rates and water for a long time when it is hot, dry and windy and for s shorter time when it is cool, humid and still.
It also asks about soil types so it can estimate how long the ground stays moist after a big storm and adjust watering durations accordingly.
